Dice & Sorcery

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CopyCat - Review

Back in 2014 Spyfall was a big hit at our gaming group. We played almost every time, not just one but many rounds. Therefore I was quite excited when I got in touch with Hawk Games and they told me about their new game they would like to launch on  kickstarter. The described it as a combination of Spyfall and Resistance which of course sounded very promising.

Rules

About a month ago I recieved a small box in the mail including The CopyCat which has no similarities with the game from Friedeman Friese, also called Copycat. This is a card game for 4-15 player, usually taking 5-20 minutes depending on the playercount. The official description sounds as follows:



The CopyCat
is a word-based, hidden-identity psychology card game. Players secretly assigned theCopyCat role must pretend they know the word or phrase that everyone else carefully describes based on hints and descriptions, while the other players try to identify and eliminate the CopyCats!

 

20160513_235503.jpgThe rules are simple and fit nicely on one of the cards inside the box. Every player recieves a card which is either stating that he/she is a Human or a CopyCat. Then everyone has to close their eyes and one after each other they secretly look at the topic card in the middle. The topic card is covered with another neutral card and depending wich group the player belongs to he/she may either look at the top or the bottom of the topic card. The neutral card is used to cover the rest of the topic card. After everyone has seen either the actual word (Humans) or the hint (CopyCat) starting with a random player everyone hast to say one word or phrase. The humans will try to prove their allegiance by providing a good description of the topic, but vague enough as not to give the CopyCats too much information.

The CopyCat(s) will try to blend into the Human group by using the hint and the words named by the other players. After everyone has said a word or phrase the group has to elinimante one or more players (depending on the playercount) and the second round may begin. After the second round there is again an elimination and if the CopyCats were voted out of the game the Humans win. If one or more CopyCats managed to stay in game the have won this round.

Gameplay

The game has a nice concept which I really enjoy. As mentioned earlier it has some similarities with Spyfall and maybe Codenames. You get a card at the beginning telling if you are a CopyCat or not. Then like in Werevolwes you close your eyes and look at the center card one by one. Is was very nice to see how Humans try to find a nice word which fits the Topic, but does not give away to much informatio. For example the topic was Witch and the players came up with broom, forest, cat. Some topic were easier to guess for the CopyCats as others, but we did not feel any unbalance in the game.

However, we did encounter some words, which caused a bit of trouble. The problem is, if just one player does not understand or can not relate the topic the whole round has to be restarted. The identity cards have to be reshuffled and a new topic cards chosen. With 6+ players this can be annoying and disturb the flow of the game, even more if this happens multiple times. The game is quick, but related to the playtime preparation takes long. Having to deal out the identity cards, then the topic card has to go around, while everyone has their eyes closed and nothing is really happening, no storytelling like in werewolves. 

With 9+ players two topic cards are taken, but the players have to decide which one to look at. So some players will look at "A" card some at "B" card, which makes the words/phrases named by the players even more confusing. This gives a bigger chance for the CopyCats to blend in and therefore a higher chance for winning. There is a portion on randomness/luck involved, how the distribution of the two cards is under the players. I have to mention that there is a beginner mode. The CopyCat could look at two hints on the card.

The components are really nice, the box is small and easy to transport. The only negative about is, that it can be closed in a certain way, but there is no graphic help which way. So I usually get it wrong everytime I want to put the top back. The cards are printed on one side, but the designers assured me, that the backside printing should be a strechgoal during their campaing, which I would really welcome! The art/box and cards are not final and may change during or after the campaign.

Summary 

The CopyCat is neat little game, easy to learn and quick to play with larger groups as well. If the desigers finetune it during their campaign I am sure this is a game every larger group needs for a session. At the moment the game is only in English. If you got interested go check out the ongoing campaign on Kickstarter!

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